Crafting my list

One of the good things about having white boards is that I can write down lists.  To Do lists are all well and good when you have a plan, but when you have a list of things to do with no specific date, white boards can't be beat.  Unfortunately, once your list reaches from the top to the bottom of the board, it means you should probably get something done...

I have two white boards in my house and I consolidated my To Craft lists last night.  Holy crap, I have a ton of stuff to get done.  My goal is to get everything on it right now done before 2013.  Why so far away you ask?  Because otherwise I'll miss the deadline and nothing will get done. :)

Here is my To Craft list, or at least part of it.  I forgot to write it all down in my notebook last night.  And, of course, this doesn't include presents for holidays - except my sisters birthday next month.  I guess it's time for me to break out my sewing machine and get going!

To Sew for SCA:
Daemon's Greek tunic
Daemon's second tunic
Finish Dezy's green dress
Make Dezy a loose sleeve gown that doesn't bother the burn on her arm?
Dezy - New hoop skirt
Dezy - fix old hoop skirt
Camicia
Veils
Coazzone / Trinzale
Turkish coat
Loose Venetian gown / coat
Persian or Turkish garb - Pick one!
German Garb
Dezy bag
SCA specific bag
Daemon pouch
Fancy sleeves
Embroidered heraldry sleeve
For SCA:
Game boards
Rule book / binder - bind into a book?
Heraldry flash cards

To Sew:
Simple skirt / broomstick skirt
Yoke top
Wallet
Laptop / work bag
Project bags
New sharpie bag
New hook bag or roll

To Crochet:
Dezy voodoo head bag 
Dezy voodoo doll
Dezy bunny
 
Other Crafts:
Plastic Canvas creeper
Eevee in some form
Mother's day present

Stash Diving

I have a huge stash of random crafty bits in my house.  I have some organized in my hallway closet, and I have some taking up half the room in my storage area.  As I am trying to minimize the stuff in my house, my stash has been driving me crazy.  It’s somewhat unorganized and full of random bits I’m not sure I will ever use.

I thought I should throw away those old brown envelopes; I’m not going to do anything with them.  I’ve used several in the last week to create templates for sewing projects.

I thought, I’m never going to do anything with plastic canvas, why am I keeping this?  I just made a new needle case and plan to make at least one more for the ArtVend.

Of course, I also suffer from ‘Man, why did I throw that away?’ disease.  Whenever I finally get rid of an item, I find myself in a position where I really need that item.

Am I a hoarder?  Yes and no.  I do have a stash, but I have a healthy relationship with my trash can.  Not everything goes in my stash, regardless of what it looks like.  I have a stash of envelopes leftover from when I was going to turn them all into scrap paper notebooks.  I think a good chunk of that stash will go with me to a junk journal workshop.  I have plastic canvas that came from my great grandmothers stash and in a set of stuff from Freecycle.  I do use my stash and it’s slowly getting smaller or staying the same size.  My crafting tastes are just so widely spread, it’s hard not to have a large stash.

What do you do to keep your stash under control? 

Mused: Random Internet Goodness

Sometimes I'm ahead of the curve, others I feel like I've had my head in the sand.  I ran across this lovely today on another blog.  It's Handmade Ryan Gosling.

After a weekend spent crafting, frogging mistakes, and going 'oh, crap,' what I really would like is a cute guy offering to massage my hands or move to the woods and make soap.  That's what Handmade Ryan Gosling has to offer!  I think it's pretty hilarious, like LoLcats with a cute guy and better grammer!

And now I'm inspired once again to make my own soap.  Maybe I will get it done in time for xmas.  Ryan Gosling, will you help?

Create: Halloween 2011, Part 1

With Halloween almost upon us and my sewing machine out of commission, I've been floundering on what is going to happen.  I planned on whipping up a quick tunic/toga for the kiddo, but without my sewing machine I feel like I can't do anything.

Of course, it doesn't help that the kiddo keeps changing his mind on his costume.  Just this morning, he said something about time-traveling.  Last I knew, he wanted to be kitsune Spartan archer.  Although if he wants to go time traveling, I'm going to demand he add a bit of steampunk to his costume. 

In order to at least have begun his costume, I pulled out my trusty glue gun and some bits from around the house to make a quiver for the kiddo.

Materials:
Glue gun and sticks
Brown felt (leftover from another project)
Cardboard tube and stopper (from the pile for the bunny to chew on)

I found a large tube with a plastic stopper on the end and cut out the felt to fit around it, then glued it into place.  The end was folded and glued down. 

I was going to try to do something fancy with the top, but decided simplicity was a better idea.  I put down a line of glue and folded the felt down, then cut it to size. 

The straps were two inches wide and cut to the length of my remaining felt.  I glued one strap to each end of the quiver so the kiddo could tie it on.  I'll add a few safety pins to make sure it stays on all night.

The kiddo has a couple play crossbow bolts and a few nerf arrows that will fill the quiver.  I'm not having him take the bow as it will just get in the way.  But now he has a quiver that he can play around with.  Hmm, maybe I need to make myself a shield now before he takes over the house....

Mused: And to All a Good Night

As usual, the holidays are all sorts of busy.  I have a million projects to do and not enough time to get them done.

And as this is xmas eve or after it, I will leave you with a couple pictures of what I have accomplished this year.  Many of them are already wrapped and under the tree or already handed out, but I managed a few pictures.

 I made our stockings this year.  And I forgot to get a better picture of them hanging up on the wall.

 

Crochet wolf I made for my son.

 

Upholstered ornaments for my coworkers.

I hope your holidays are full of joy and laughter.

Hail the newborn sun!

Mused: A Cloudy Sun

I apologize for the lateness of this post, dear readers.  Life around here has been a bit… busy.  This is the first time I am able to sit and write up a post.  One of my goals for the new year is to plan ahead and write posts well before they are supposed to be published.

Diane Rixon

Today’s craft was supposed to be dried oranges to hang on your tree to greet the sun.  Unfortunately, I haven’t had time to accomplish it.  Instead, I will share tutorial with you on how to do so. 

http://www.diylife.com/2007/12/12/orange-slices-make-fragrant-and-pretty-christmas-ornaments/

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/oven-dried-orange-slices-1

Mused: What I did this month

Nanowrimo ate my brain for awhile.  While I was writing up 50,000 words and finishing my novel, almost everything else fell by the side of the road.  But no longer!

I not only finished my novel and hit the 50,000 word mark, but I have accomplished quite a bit of crafty-ness as well.  Luckily.  With the holiday season upon us, I had better get my butt to work, right?

So today I am going to take you through a few of the projects that I have completed.

First, and my current favorite, is a scarf that I will present to someone who shares my love of vampires.  I got the idea for this project from the Vampire Knits book.  They had a freebie design that was called a Tourniquet Scarf.  I can't knit, but it was pretty easy to crochet.  It's supposed to look like a big wound on your neck is dripping down the tourniquet.

I'm still working on the kiddo's Harry Potter scarf.  He likes Ravenclaw.

I finally finished the advent calendar, and just in time too.  It is now hanging around three walls of our house (windows and closets keep me from having a large amount of blank space that isn't already decorated).  The kiddo has had fun with it so far and I hope that continues.

I am sending out my Solstice cards to a few people in a Swap-Bot swap.  I am very happy with the way they turned out.  Plus, I wrapped them in scrap paper rather than use a new envelope!

And my biggest accomplishment?  Finally deciding on a planner system for next year.  It's always a struggle for me because I have so many different ideas of what to use.  I settle on an idea, then think, oh wait, I want this too!  But this year I have decided to go with a 5.5 x 8.5 binder.  That means I can take out and add things to it as I want to.  And I finally found the binder!  It was an obsession to find one.  I wasn't able to thrift one, although I did make a binder from an old photo album and cardboard, so I ended up paying money to buy this one new.  But it was cheaper than buying an actual planner and I can customize it the way I want to.

Have a great weekend!  I hope you accomplish everything you set out to do.

Mused: Craft Fair Setup

I was worried when I got down to a week to go to the fair and I didn't have a set up yet.  But while I was outside looking for sticks to try and make the kiddo a Harry Potter style wand, I realized that I had a huge resource at my disposal.

For a previous swap, I had made a jewelry holder out of twigs, and so why couldn't I make a display out of them?

I grabbed a couple mostly straight sticks that I thought would hold up under handling and one that had lots of smaller branches and sprayed them down with glaze.  The straight ones where wrapped together using hemp and all of them were sunk into tin cans wrapped around with more hemp and full of stones. 

I got more comments on my set up than my product at the fair.  I was quite happy with it all.

Have a great weekend!

Muse: Crafting Crafting Crafting

I decided to participate in a craft fair finally.  I was trying to help motivate a friend of mine who decided she wanted to start a crafty jewelry business as her part time job.  So what better way to get her out there and finding customers?  A craft fair!

I had kind of given up on the idea of my own crafty business as too much work.  If I have to make the same thing too many times, I'm tired of it and it's not fun anymore.  But I decided I could help her out.  I'd bring my hemp jewelry and she could bring her beaded jewelry and we could have a good time sitting together.

Except she flaked on me.  Granted, I expected it, but still, geez.  So luckily I had snagged another friend to sit with me, had a bunch of zines from another friend, and I knew half of the vendors, so it was a pretty good day.  Do I think I'll do it again?  Maybe, but with different/more items. 

I had fun, though, and learned a bit.  And I got my son to get me an xmas present I'm really going to enjoy. 

So even though it threw off my writing, I'm glad I participated.

What do you want to do but haven't gone for?

Write: What It Means to be Frugal

Here is the exercise for today:
Think of something that you are frugal about, or something you splurge on. Why do you save/spend money on that item? How often do you use it?

There are piles on the floor,
overflowing from the bins and boxes
they’ve been assigned to.
Random bits, leftovers, things inherited.
From this chaos, my creations are born.
Thrift finds and garage sale surprise
blossom, forming new life
saved from the landfill.
No extra packaging or instructions
come with my new beauties.
Life created wastes nothing.

Create: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Crafts

I've discovered in this month of stash busting that 1) I suck crafting without a deadline, nothing is getting done, and 2) almost everything I have made has been stash because I'm always broke. :)  Here are a few of the things I've made recently.

Here is the haul I made for my poetry swap partner.  Yarn out of my stash for the sun and clouds.  Beads from stash for the rain drop necklace (I need to make one of those for myself).  Magnet and candy wrapper stash for the swallows and card.  Cardboard, white paper (saved from the trash at work from printer screw ups), and fancy paper from stash for the handbound journal. 

Here is what I was working on last night.  The little pouch is for my converter drive so I can share pictures with you guys!  Made from a pair of my son's old pants.  The flower is made of used envelopes from work.  The jars are a pickle and salsa jar, painted with modpodge and food coloring.  They are supposed to be candle holders.  The idea for the jars came recently from a post on my feeder, maybe from Craft?  I don't remember.

Have fun and remember your three R's!

Inspire: Surprise Inspiration

Quick Note:  Sorry, again, for posting late.  Dentist appointment so no work today, and I tried all this weekend to get to the library and failed miserably.  The rest of the week should be fine. 

I went to the thrift store yesterday before a meeting because I forgot to check what time the library opened when I checked what time it closed.  I've been haunting the stores for cassarole dishes and parts for the childs theatre costumes.  I was overwhelmed with what I found.  It was amazing, I could have spent fifty dollars and still had things I wanted.  And for those of you not familiar with thrift stores, fifty dollars goes a long, long ways.

I am constantly reminded why I would rather go to thrift stores than the big box stores every time I go in there.  Yesterday I was drawn to a large square basket, the type with an attached lid, handles, and lock.  I thought it might be a picnic basket.  When I opened it up, it turned out to be full of vintage cross stitch and embroidery supplies.  For eight dollars, I had to have it.  Not only could it possibly be retouched to carry traveling craft supplies, but it was just awesome.  I aquired several patterns, some works in progress, about five unopened aida cross stitch clothes, and bits and pieces of everything.

This basket inspires me to continue to look around me, in unlikely spots, for inspiration for my life.  It keeps my eyes open to the world of possibilities, especially in places others think of as ordinary.  It's part of the art of poetry as well to draw out the mystery of the everyday.

What surprises and inspiration can you find in what others have given away?

Create: Calendar and Pomander

Today is December 1st... already!  I remember getting advent calendars when I was a kid and got to thinking that because my son is being raised as a Pagan, there are a lot of traditions he is missing out on.  He has also been bugging me lately about "doing something fun" with me, although the things I suggest get a half minute worth of time and then he's bored again. 

A couple blogs that I follow had some advent calendar ideas and I snagged a couple to fill both needs.  Instead of having a piece of candy for each day, we are doing an activity!  Rather than open up a door, we are unfolding a paper chain.  I'm hoping to save each piece and make ornaments for next year when it's all over.  Hopefully this will be a tradition we can continue.

For the chain I cut twenty one strips after making my list of activities, starting on the 1st and going to the 21st.  Then I wrote the activity on the inside and folded it in half.  I based each activity based on what we have going on in the week.  Mondays and Tuesdays are pretty shot for intensive activities since the kiddo has wrestling right after I get home. 

On the outside I wrote the number.  (Didn't think about it at the time, but next year I will count DOWN the days left instead of counting the days.)  Then I taped up each one and hung it on the calendar. 

Today was Day One (although it's technically the third day.  But it's a Solstice calendar anyway, who cares!) and my son can't wait to open another one tomorrow.  Success!  We made pomanders tonight.  I haven't made one of these since I was a kid.  Hopefully they dry out alright.

Craft: Bookmarks and Holder

I love to read, and so does my son.  I don't like to dog ear pages but always end up either doing so or tearing off a random piece of paper.  So awhile ago, I decided to upcycle some bookmarks.  The container to keep them contained was upcycled as well out of a macaroni and cheese container.  See Exhibit A:

Tonight I got tired of seeing them all scattered and looking like crap on my table.  So I took the back of a legal pad, some paper, glue, and another macaroni and cheese container.  Now it looks like two books, and I think it looks spiffy.  Exhibit B:

Unfortunately, I am a pack rat and I hate throwing stuff away.  That especially goes for cardboard, etc.  That's why I like to upcycle and recycle stuff.  My favorite bookmark right now is from a Celestial Seasonings box.  It's wonderful, colorful, and fits the pages perfectly.  Almost all of those bookmarks in the container are upcycled.